Once again, editors Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S Lincoln have put together a volume that represents the state of the art for the theory and practice of qualitative inquiry. Built on the foundation of the landmark first and second editions, the third edition is both the bridge and the roadmap to the territory that lies ahead for researchers across the disciplines. The Fourth Edition is a virtually new work. It features new chapter topics, including, among others, auto-ethnography, critical race theory, applied ethnography, queer theory, and testimonies. Several additional chapters are written by new contributors. And, every chapter in the book has been thoroughly revised and updated. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is necessary to re-engage the promise of qualitative research as a generative form of inquiry. The Fourth Edition of the Handbook reveals how the discourses of qualitative research can be used to imagine and create a free and democratic society. Ground-breaking, thought-provoking, comprehensive, and featuring the contributions of a virtual "Who's Who" in the human sciences, the Handbook of Qualitative Research, Third Edition is an absolutely essential text for the library of any scholar interested in the art and science of research.

Norman K. Denzin is Distinguished Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology and Humanities, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of numerous books, including The Qualitative Manifesto, Qualitative Inquiry Under Fire, and Performance Ethnography: Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture. He is past editor of The Sociological Quarterly, co-editor of Qualitative Inquiry, founding editor of Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies, editor of International Review of Qualitative Research, editor of Studies in Symbolic Interaction, and founding Director of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.

Yvonna S. Lincoln is Professor of Higher Education and Educational Administration at Texas A & M University. She is author, coauthor, or editor of such books as Naturalistic Inquiry and Fourth Generation Evaluation (both with Egon G. Guba), and Organizational Theory and Inquiry. Vice President of Division J (Postsecondary Education) of the American Educational Research Association, Dr. Lincoln formerly served as president of the American Evaluation Association and is the recipient of many prestigious awards. Dr. Lincoln coedited, with Dr. Denzin, the Handbook of Qualitative Research.